1.
Cricket
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Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a cricket field, at the centre of which is a rectangular 22-yard-long pitch with a wicket at each end. One team bats, attempting to score as many runs as possible, each phase of play is called an innings. After either ten batsmen have been dismissed or a number of overs have been completed, the innings ends. The winning team is the one that scores the most runs, including any extras gained, at the start of each game, two batsmen and eleven fielders enter the field of play. The striker takes guard on a crease drawn on the four feet in front of the wicket. His role is to prevent the ball hitting the stumps by use of his bat. The other batsman, known as the non-striker, waits at the end of the pitch near the bowler. A dismissed batsman must leave the field, and a teammate replaces him, the bowlers objectives are to prevent the scoring of runs and to dismiss the batsman. An over is a set of six deliveries bowled by the same bowler, the next over is bowled from the other end of the pitch by a different bowler. If a fielder retrieves the ball enough to put down the wicket with a batsman not having reached the crease at that end of the pitch. Adjudication is performed on the field by two umpires, the laws of cricket are maintained by the International Cricket Council and the Marylebone Cricket Club. Traditionally cricketers play in all-white kit, but in limited overs cricket they wear club or team colours. In addition to the kit, some players wear protective gear to prevent injury caused by the ball. Although crickets origins are uncertain, it is first recorded in south-east England in the 16th century and it spread globally with the expansion of the British Empire, leading to the first international matches in the mid-19th century. ICC, the governing body, has over 100 members. The sport is followed primarily in Australasia, Britain, the Indian subcontinent, southern Africa, womens cricket, which is organised and played separately, has also achieved international standard. A number of words have been suggested as sources for the term cricket, in the earliest definite reference to the sport in 1598 it is called creckett. One possible source for the name is the Old English cricc or cryce meaning a crutch or staff, in Samuel Johnsons Dictionary, he derived cricket from cryce, Saxon, a stick

2.
Marylebone Cricket Club
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Marylebone Cricket Club is a cricket club in London, founded in 1787. It owns, and is based at, Lords in St Johns Wood, MCC was formerly the governing body of cricket both in England and Wales as well as worldwide. In 1993 many of its functions were transferred to the International Cricket Council and its English governance passed to the Test. MCC revised the Laws of Cricket in 1788 and continues to reissue them, since its foundation, the club has raised its own teams which are essentially occasional and have never taken part in any formal competition. Depending on the quality of the opposition in any match, MCC teams have held important match status from 1787 to 1894. MCC has never played in a List A match, MCC teams play many matches against minor opposition and, on these occasions, they relinquish their first-class status. Traditionally, to mark the beginning of each English season in April, MCC plays the reigning County Champions at Lords, the exact date of MCCs foundation is lost but seems to have been sometime in the late spring or the summer of 1787. Many of its members became dissatisfied with the surroundings and complained that the site was too public. They asked Thomas Lord, a bowler at the White Conduit, to secure a more private venue within easy distance of London. When Lord opened his new ground in May 1787, the White Conduit moved there, there was a match at Lords starting on 30 July 1787 titled Marylebone Cricket Club v White Conduit Club. The England touring team wore the red and yellow stripes of the Marylebone Cricket Club as their colours for the last time on the tour to New Zealand in 1996/97. The true provenance of MCCs colours is unknown, but its players often turned out sporting Sky Blue, until well into the 19th century. Another theory, which chimes with the origins, is that MCC borrowed its colours from the livery colours of a founding patron, Charles Lennox, 4th Duke of Richmond. Although MCC remains the framer and copyright holder of the Laws of Cricket, in recent times the ICC has begun instituting changes to match regulations without much consultation with MCC. Also, in moving its location from Lords to Dubai, the ICC gave a signal of breaking with the past and from MCC, changes to the laws of cricket are still made by the MCC. Any changes to these require a resolution of the MCC committee. MCC has long had an involvement in coaching the game of cricket. As of 2013 the clubs head coach Mark Alleyne heads an operation involving the running of an indoor-cricket school

3.
Middlesex County Cricket Club
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Middlesex County Cricket Club is one of eighteen first-class county clubs within the domestic cricket structure of England and Wales. It represents the county of Middlesex. Middlesex teams formed by earlier organisations since the early 18th century always had senior status and so the county club is rated accordingly from inception, the club plays most of its home games at Lords Cricket Ground in St Johns Wood, which is owned by Marylebone Cricket Club. The club also plays some games around the county at the Uxbridge Cricket Club Ground. Until October 2014, the club played limited overs cricket as the Middlesex Panthers, however, on 24 October 2014, the club announced that they would use the name Middlesex County Cricket Club in all forms of the sport, with immediate effect. Limited-overs kit colours are blue and pink quarters and from 2007. Middlesex CCC has a school based in Finchley, the Middlesex Academy. Early references to the game in London or Middlesex are often interchangeable, see, History of cricket to 1696 and History of cricket 1697 -1725 The first definite mention of cricket in London or Middlesex dates from 1680. It is a reference to the two umpires and strongly suggests that the double wicket form of the game was already well known in London. The earliest known match in Middlesex took place at Lambs Conduit Fields in Holborn on 3 July 1707 involving teams from London and Croydon, in 1718, the first reference is found to White Conduit Fields in Islington, which later became a very famous London venue. The earliest known reference to a team called Middlesex is on 5 August 1728 when it played London Cricket Club in the fields behind the Woolpack, in Islington, near Sadlers Wells and this was also the earliest known first-class match involving a Middlesex team. The club was founded on 15 December 1863 at a meeting in the London Tavern. Formal constitution took place on 2 February 1864, Middlesex CCC played its initial first-class match versus Sussex CCC at Islington on 6 &7 June 1864. In the same season, the club was a contender for the title of Champion County, Middlesex played at Lillie Bridge Grounds from 1869 before leaving in 1872 due to the poor quality of the turf. The club nearly folded at this time, a vote for continuing being won 7–6 and they played at Princes Cricket Ground from 1872 to 1876, and began using Lords Cricket Ground in 1877. The Club has produced several noted players, particularly the great batsmen Patsy Hendren, Bill Edrich, Bill Edrich scored 1,000 runs before the end of May in 1938. He needed just 15 innings, with 4 centuries, and every run was scored at Lords, don Bradman gave him the chance to score the 10 runs he needed in the Australian tour match with Middlesex by declaring his teams innings early. Middlesex won the County Championship in 1947 thanks to the run scoring of Compton

4.
John Wisden
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John Wisden was an English cricketer who played 187 first-class cricket matches for three English county cricket teams, Kent, Middlesex and Sussex. He is now best known for launching the eponymous Wisden Cricketers Almanack in 1864, Wisden was born in Crown Street, Brighton. His father, William, was a builder and he attended Brightons Middle Street School. He moved to London after his father died, and lived with the wicket-keeper Tom Box. In July 1845, aged 18, only 5 ft 6 in and weighing just 7 stone, he made his first-class debut for Sussex against MCC, taking 6 wickets in the first innings and three in the second. He joined the All-England Eleven in 1846, moving allegiance to the United All-England Eleven in 1852 and he was engaged to marry George Parrs sister Annie in 1849, but she died before the wedding, and he never married. Initially a fast roundarm bowler, before overarm bowling was permitted, his pace slowed in later years so he bowled medium pace, while bowling fast, he took on average nearly 10 wickets in each game. In 1850, when he was playing for the South against the North at Lords, his off-cutter technique won him 10 wickets in the second innings and he played almost all of his cricket in England, mostly for Sussex, but once for Kent and thrice for Middlesex. He travelled with a team led by George Parr to Canada and the US in 1859. Of moderate height, he was nicknamed the Little Wonder after the winner of the Epsom Derby in 1840 and he was said to be the best all-rounder of his day. In all, he took 1,109 first-class wickets with a average of 10.32. He scored 4,140 first-class runs with a average of 14.12. He was also the coach at Harrow School from 1852 to 1855, and owned The Cricketers. He retired from cricket in 1863 at the early age of 37 as a result of rheumatism. He also published in Cricket and How to Play It in 1866, in retirement he developed his business into a manufacturer and retailer of equipment for many sports, not just cricket. The shop moved to Cranbourn Street near Leicester Square in 1872, after his death the business grew into a major international sports brand, receiving a Royal Warrant in 1911 as Athletic Outfitters to the King. The business went into receivership in 1939, and was acquired in 1943 by a Co-operative society, Grays then ceased to use Wisden as an equipment brand, but re-established John Wisden & Co as the publisher of the Cricketers Almanack. It is now an imprint of Wisdens owner, Bloomsbury Publishing Plc, Wisden died of cancer, at the age of 57, in the flat above his Cranbourn Street shop

5.
Fred Lillywhite
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Frederick Lillywhite was a sports outfitter and cricketing entrepreneur, who organised the first overseas cricket tour by an English team and published a number of reference works about cricket. Lillywhite was born in Hove, Sussex on 7 July 1829, Fred and John Lillywhite, as well as their elder brother, James, all went into business as sports outfitters. Perhaps because of this multiplicity of Lillywhites, latter day accounts of their activities sometimes conflict as to who did what. What is clear is that Fred was a manager, probably from 1848 to 1855, in the firm of Lillywhite Brothers, the Lillywhites father died in 1854 and was buried in Highgate Cemetery, North London. This partnership did not survive the tour to the United States and Canada in 1859 that Lillywhite organised, by 1860 James Lilywhite was cricketing coach at Cheltenham College, Gloucestershire, where he also ran an outfitters. John Lillywhite, who had joined the 1859 tour, was then running a cricketing warehouse near Euston Square. In 1848 Fred Lillywhite had produced the first edition of his The Guide to Cricketers which was published until the year of his death in 1866, from 1867 Freds Guide was incorporated in James Lillywhites Cricketers Companion which continued in that form until 1880. In 1865 the Marylebone Cricket Club withdrew its support for Lillywhites Guide and this falling out with the cricketing establishment seems to have arisen from the trenchancy of some of Lillywhites observations. Significantly, in 1866, Wisden noted that John Wisden & Co have avoided making remarks upon the play or players and this recommendation was implemented over sixty years later, in 1931, when the height was increased by an inch and the stumps were also widened. The touring party of 1859 left Liverpool on the SS Nova Scotian on 7 September, H. Stephenson, who later led the first private tour by an England XI to Australia in 1861. Fred Lillywhite travelled with his tent and printing press. His role on the tour has been described as that of scorer, reporter, and mentor, not to say Nestor. The team won all five matches against a 22 of Lower Canada, a 22 of the United States, a different 22 of the United States, a 22 of Lower Canada. There were also some exhibition matches and a game of baseball when a match in New York was interrupted by snow. The team made two excursions to view the Niagara Falls, Lillywhites detailed account of the tour, The English Cricketers Trip to Canada and the United States, was published in 1860 and reprinted over a century later, in 1980. There was coverage also in the 13th edition of his Guide to Cricketers and Caffyn gave an account in a memoir, Seventy-one Not Out and he published also various scoring books and sheets, as well as scorecards of matches. Lillywhite died on 15 September 1866 at the age of 37

6.
Underarm bowling
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In cricket, underarm bowling is as old as the sport itself. Until the introduction of the style in the first half of the 19th century, bowling was performed in the same way as in bowls. For centuries, bowling was performed exactly as in bowls because the ball was rolled or skimmed along the ground. The bowlers may have used variations in pace but the action was essentially the same. Crickets first great bowling revolution occurred probably in the 1760s when bowlers started to pitch the ball instead of rolling it along the ground, the pitched delivery was established by 1772 when detailed scorecards became commonplace and the straight bat had already replaced the curved one by that time. There is no doubt that the bat was invented to contest the pitched delivery. It has been said that the inventor was John Small of Hambledon but it is unlikely that he invented it, rather. The 1760s are one of crickets Dark Ages, a deal more is known about the decades 1731–1750 than of 1751–1770. This has largely to do with the impact of the Seven Years War of 1756–1763 which not only claimed the sports manpower but also its patronage. The rules for bowlers in the 1744 Laws focus on the position of the foot during delivery. The umpires were granted discretion and so presumably would call no ball if, say, one of the first great bowlers to employ the pitched delivery to good effect was Edward Lumpy Stevens of Chertsey and Surrey. There is a rhyme about him to the effect that honest Lumpy did allow he neer would pitch. Lumpy was a professional who studied the arts and crafts of the game to seek continuous improvement as a bowler. He is known to have observed the flight of the ball and experimented for long hours with variations of line, length, other great bowlers of the late 18th century were Thomas Brett and David Harris, both of Hambledon. They were fast bowlers whereas Lumpy relied on variety of pace, an interesting bowler of the time was Lamborn who spun the ball in an unorthodox fashion and may have been the original unorthodox spinner. Underarm bowling was effective while pitch conditions were difficult for batsmen due to being uneven, in time, especially after the opening of Lords and the development of groundsmanship, pitches began to improve and batsmen were able to play longer innings than formerly. In the 1780s and 1790s, one of the best batsmen around was Tom Walker, Walker was another improviser like Lumpy and he began to experiment by bowling with his hand away from his body. It is not clear how high he raised his hand but it could have been waist height and he was accused of jerking the ball and so delivering it in an unfair and improper manner

7.
History of cricket to 1725
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The earliest definite reference to cricket is dated Monday,17 January 1597. Derricks testimony makes clear that the sport was being played c.1550, All that can be said with a fair degree of certainty is that its beginning was earlier than 1550, somewhere in south-east England within the counties of Kent, Sussex and Surrey. Therefore, forest clearings and land where sheep had grazed would have been suitable places to play, the sparse information available about the early years suggests that it may have been a childrens game in the 16th century but, by 1611, it had become an adult pastime. The earliest known organised match was played c.1611, a year in other significant references to the sport are dated. From 1611 to 1725, less than thirty matches are known to have been organised between recognised teams, similarly, only a limited number of players, teams and venues of the period have been recorded. The earliest matches played by English parish teams are examples of village cricket, although village matches are now considered minor in status, the early matches are significant in crickets history simply because they are known. There were no reports of matches until the end of the seventeenth century and so the primary sources are court records and private diaries. During the reign of Charles I, the took a increased interest as patrons. Its patrons staged lucrative eleven-a-side matches featuring the earliest professional players, meanwhile, English colonists had introduced cricket to North America and the West Indies, and the sailors and traders of the East India Company had taken it to the Indian subcontinent. In the first quarter of the 18th century, more information about cricket became available as the newspaper industry took an interest. The sport noticeably began to spread throughout England as the century went on, by 1725, significant patrons such as Edwin Stead, Charles Lennox, 2nd Duke of Richmond and Sir William Gage were forming teams of county strength in Kent and Sussex. The earliest known great players, including William Bedle and Thomas Waymark, were active, Cricket was attracting large, vociferous crowds and the matches were social occasions at which gambling and alcoholic drinks were additional attractions. As early as c.1611, a match was recorded at Chevening in Kent between teams representing the Downs and the Weald. A number of words in use at the time are thought to be possible sources for the name cricket. In the earliest known reference to the sport in 1598, it is called creckett, in what may be an early reference to the sport, a 1533 poem attributed to John Skelton describes Flemish weavers as kings of crekettes, a word of apparent Middle Dutch origin. In Samuel Johnsons Dictionary of the English Language, he derived cricket from cryce, Saxon, in Old French, the word criquet seems to have meant a kind of club or stick, though this may have been the origin of croquet. Another possible source is the Middle Dutch word krickstoel, meaning a long low stool used for kneeling in church, according to Heiner Gillmeister, a European language expert of the University of Bonn, cricket derives from the Middle Dutch phrase for hockey, met de sen. Gillmeister believes the sport itself had a Flemish origin but the jury is out on the matter

8.
1729 English cricket season
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The 1729 cricket season was the 132nd in England since the earliest known definite reference to cricket in January 1597. Details have survived of seven important matches, the earliest known innings victory is believed to have happened in 1729 and the earliest known surviving cricket bat dates from the season. The earliest known reference to cricket in the county of Gloucestershire has been found, the match on 24 June involved a team specifically named Sussex, but the result is unknown. Despite losing to Gages team in August, Kent under the patronage of Edwin Stead is generally believed to have been the strongest county team of the 1720s, there is a bat in The Oval pavilion which belonged to John Chitty of Knaphill, Surrey. Dated 1729, it is the oldest known bat, pitching began about 30 years later and the straight bats used nowadays were invented in response to the pitched delivery. Dr Samuel Johnson attended the University of Oxford from October 1728 until the summer and later told James Boswell that cricket matches were played there. Boswell mentioned this in his Life of Samuel Johnson, a local game in Gloucester on Monday,22 September is the earliest known reference to cricket in Gloucestershire. Gloucestershire Gentlemen of London Gentlemen of Middlesex Sussex Sussex, Surrey & Hampshire none Walworth Common Woolpack, a Guide to Important Cricket Matches Played in the British Isles 1709 –1863. Cricket, A History of its Growth and Development, fresh Light on 18th Century Cricket. From Commons to Lords, Volume One,1700 to 1750, a History of Cricket, Volume 1. A Social History of English Cricket, Sussex Cricket in the Eighteenth Century. Classification of cricket matches from 1697 to 1825, archived from the original on 29 June 2011

The 1729 cricket season was the 132nd in England since the earliest known definite reference to cricket in January 1597 …

The oldest cricketbat still in existence dates from 1729. Note the shape, which is more like that of a modern-day hockey stick than a modern-day cricket bat. It is kept in the Sandham Room in the Member's Pavilion at the Oval